Manufacturers, service providers, airlines, financial organizations and governmental units historically employ large numbers of agents working primarily with the telephone, often using an automated call distribution system. The agents may answer incoming calls received on a toll free number. The agents may alternatively be telemarketers or collectors placing outgoing calls. Such organizations would build and staff large call centers to manage these hundreds or thousands of agents in some cases. Employees commute from their homes to the call centers to perform their work duties. There, supervisors can visually oversee the activities of agents and provide hands on management and coaching in person.
Call centers are, however, expensive to build and manage, requiring considerable fixed investment in real property, equipment, training and support services. In addition, because many organizations operate on a 24 hour basis, call centers must be kept open and staffed and managed on that basis. Agents are therefore required to commute to the call centers at all hours, a prospect that may not be attractive to all employees. This inconvenience limits the size of the pool of potential call center employees for the organization. The high cost of building and operating call centers as well as the inherent limitations on the available work force may cause senior management of these organizations to reconsider their service models.